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ADDicted, or Just ADD?

Every so often, there's a news story about some person, invariably close to or actually elderly, who once won a big, big prize in the lottery, and wins another one. Not usually as big, maybe a daily jackpot or something, but lightning struck twice, and the officials in charge of the lottery have a vested interest in making sure we know about it, so they tip off the media.

This PR never works. Folks don't think, "wow, there's a lucky person. I should buy lottery tickets too!" No, everyone with at least one-sixth of one brain cells thinks, "Wow, there is one sick degenerate gambler!! I'd better NOT buy a lottery ticket. I could wind up like that!"

There are, sad to say, at least a few Boston sports fans who are like those double lottery winners. They think the Patriots should keep Matt Cassel and let him compete for the quarterback's job next season against that no-account playboy Tom Brady.

Their logic, while demented, is easy to follow. Drew Bledsoe got hurt in 2001, Brady replaced him, and the Pats became a dynasty. Brady gets hurt in 2008, Cassel takes over, and well, the sky's the limit. Seven or eight straight Lombardi Trophies, minimum.

All football fans are quarterback-centric, elevating the game's most important position beyond its real value. New England fans are the most quarterback-centric of all. It is their most obvious group flaw (optimism in the face of adversity is their most obvious group virtue). But this splinter group of Cassel nuts is something else. Either they have long-term memory loss commonly associated with decades of constant marijuana use, or they're quarterback controversy junkies from years of constant sports talk radio listening.

I'm not sure which would be worse.

posted by Michael Gee @ 8:36 AM